The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) will release and discuss its report entitled “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology.” This congressionally-mandated report assesses the status and direction of the Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program.

The event will be moderated by Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer, and feature opening remarks by Vivek Kundra, Federal Chief Information Officer. The report will be summarized by the co-chairs of PCAST’s NITRD working group, David Shaw, Chief Scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, and Ed Lazowska, Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Susan Graham, a working group member, will join the working group co-chairs in answering questions about the report. Independent discussants Robert Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and Tom Leighton, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Akamai Technologies will provide comments on the report. Press and the public will have an opportunity to ask questions following the presentations.